Epilogue #3
He asked for, and was granted, the chance to start again, another parallel to Lizzy and Darcy, so that Kitty would come to know the real person behind the facade.
She agreed, but told him that his second and last chance would be over if he ever treated her or her family and friends with disrespect again.
At the end of the season, he called on Kitty at Longbourn, requested, and was granted a formal courtship.
The couple courted for about six months and then Lord Chatsworth requested and was granted Lady Catherine’s hand in marriage.
After his interview with Bennet, he was shocked to find out that the Bennets had far more wealth than he had estimated, and he almost gasped aloud when the amount of Kitty’s dowry was shared with him.
Then when he found out that she owned five percent of the company and what her stake was worth, he almost fell out of the chair.
Three months later Kitty became Lady Chatsworth.
Mark’s father passed two months after the birth of their son, Lord Jonathan Mark Creighton, was born.
The Duke had passed after a long bout of illness due to a cancer.
He died happy knowing that the dukedom was secure with the birth of his grandson.
Kitty was now her Grace, Duchess of Devonshire.
She went on to present her husband with five more children; twin boys and three daughters.
Lydia Bennet and Timothy Jacobson
As was obvious to everyone that had eyes, Lydia was in love with Tim long before her season. As was the norm in the family, Lord Longbourn instructed Tim that he could not declare himself to Lydia until she had completed her first season.
Lady Lydia Bennet came out in her eighteenth year and was chased thither and yon by sons of the premier families of the Ton.
Knowledge of her dowry in excess of three hundred thousand made for a feeding frenzy as the sharks, also known as matchmaking mamas of the Ton, smelt blood in the water.
They had no chance, the restrictions on her dowry kept the worst rakes away who would have tried a compromise.
At the end of her first season, Timothy Jacobson proposed and was accepted with no delay.
By the time that they were married, with the legacy that the Bennets had gifted him, he had more than quadrupled Janet’s Well’s area and had one of the premier horse breeding programmes in the Kingdom that rivalled his brother Richard’s.
His horses were in such demand that there was a very lengthy waiting list to acquire one.
The estate eventually was earning more than fifteen thousand per annum.
They married out of the Longbourn church with her sister Helen fulfilling the role of matron of honour.
They had four children, two boys and two girls.
The oldest boy would one day inherit Janet’s Well and each daughter received one hundred thousand and the second son receiving a legacy of one hundred fifty thousand pounds.
Their separate stakes in Gardiner and Associates was eventually combined and split evenly between the four children.
The two lived a long and very felicitous life.
When they were not at their estate in Surrey, they would travel to visit their many siblings and very large extended family.
Helen Jacobson
In her second season Helen met Lord Murray Lefroy, Earl of Carrington. He was intrigued with the smart as a whip lady who did not fawn over him or show him any special interest. He knew that her fortune and connections were unrivalled, but that is not what drew him to her. He simply fell in love.
The young Earl at seven and twenty had been alone in the world for three years as his parents and two sisters had perished in a tragic accident.
He was spared as he had been visiting a friend’s estate and had begged off the trip with his family.
At first, he felt a crushing weight of guilt, but he eventually acknowledged that he was given a gift by God and decided not to waste it.
He approached Lord Longbourn after his proposals were accepted by his beloved Helen.
Consent and blessing were given conditioned on her brother’s approval.
Lord Carrington had two estates, a very healthy income, and a good amount of assets so Bennet knew that he was not after Helen’s fortune.
To be close to her late parents, she married from Janet’s Well with the blessing and support of her Bennet parents.
The betrothed Lydia, her sister and soon-to-be sister-in-law, was her maid of honour.
As had been ordained by his father, her brother Tim walked her down the aisle and gave her away.
They lived a long and happy life with six children born two sons followed by four daughters. The new Countess joined her sisters as one of the leaders of the Ton.
Fanny and Thomas Bennet:
After having turned the running of Longbourn over to his grandson Viscount Meryton, who, since he finished his studies at Cambridge, was residing at Bennet Park; Fanny and Thomas Bennet, The Earl and Countess of Longbourn, spent the bulk of their time with their daughters’ families for a month to six weeks at a time.
They would spend part of the season at Bennet House, which was a lot emptier now as their daughters were all married and had homes of their own.
Eventually Bennet House would be inherited by their heir, Lord George Bennet-Darcy.
Besides spending much time with their ever-expanding family, they loved to travel around the continent once peace was achieved after Waterloo.
They purchased homes in Paris, Geneva, and Tuscany and would spend part of the year at one of them.
It was not uncommon for them to be joined by all or a combination of the other senior members of the family.
Once a year, the whole family would congregate at one of the houses for a month in the autumn before the temperatures got too cold.
With full family support they opened schools for the children, servants, and tenants, and clinics, hospitals and orphanages around the country.
So far, they were in fifteen shires, with everything fully funded by the Bennet Family Foundation.
They were secure in the knowledge that after they were gone the family would continue and expand their legacy.
Lord Longbourn lived well into his ninth decade, and his wife followed him to heaven within a year of his passing. Lord George Bennet-Darcy, Viscount Meryton, became the second Earl of Longbourn on the sad day that his beloved grandpapa passed.
Georgiana Darcy
In her first season that she shared with Helen Jacobson, Georgie met no one that she felt that she could love and respect although she had many young men, titled and untitled, request permission to call on her.
She returned to Pemberley to help look after her nephews and niece as her sister was increasing again.
In the middle of her second season as she approached her twentieth birthday, she met the Comté de Burgundy, André Bastillon.
His family had escaped the terror in France with their fortune intact and had purchased a very large estate, Winsglade, in Cheshire, less than four hours to the west of Pemberley, and a townhouse in Mayfair.
His father had passed away a year after he purchased the estate so the new Comté had inherited the entire fortune.
He started to call on her and by the end of the season had approached Darcy and Fitzwilliam to request a courtship with their ward.
Lady Georgiana granted his request as she had finally found a man that she could love and esteem like all of the examples that she saw around her.
In March of 1815, the Comté proposed to Georgie and she accepted him with glee.
They married in July that year, six weeks after the birth of Alexander Darcy so that all of her sisters could be at her wedding as she became the Comtesse de Burgundy.
Two years after the final defeat of the Little Tyrant at Waterloo, the Bastillons, who now numbered four as Georgie had safely delivered a daughter followed by a son, returned to France for the first time since the family escaped to England those many years before.
The courts restored the Burgundy lands that included many vineyards where a good proportion of the wine with said name was produced.
They decided that their first son, Pierre George, would inherit the estate in France while a second son, or failing the birth of another son, their oldest daughter, Angelique Elizabeth, would inherit Winsglade.
They lived a very long and happy life together spending a lot of time with the ever-expanding extended family in England and three months a year at the Burgundy estate.
Lady Georgiana Bastillon had seven children, two more sons and three more daughters.
Each year, the girls that had been so close, Georgie, Kitty, Loretta, Tiffany, Lydia, Lily, and Helen, would meet at the estate of one of their husbands for a fortnight together with their husbands and children.
This tradition continued for the whole of their lifetime.
Jane and Richard Fitzwilliam
Almost two years after their first daughter, Elly, Lady Jane Fitzwilliam delivered their first son, Thomas Reginald, who would be known as Tom and who took after both his grandfathers for whom he was named, most especially in intelligence.
He was followed by Elizabeth for Jane’s beloved sister, and then by Rosamond.
After four children Andrew Richard Fitzwilliam, who they would call Andy, made his appearance and he was the last born to Lady Jane and Sir Richard Fitzwilliam.